Beaver County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Beaver County lies within Greater Pittsburgh / Three Rivers and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Beaver County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Beaver County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Beaver County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Beaver County — the short answer
Beaver County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 278K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 278K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Beaver County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beaver County's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Beaver County
Across a year, Beaver County accumulates about 2,928 growing degree days above 50°F, about 381 more than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 53 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Beaver County
Across Beaver County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Gilpin, Weikert, and Rayne are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.6, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Beaver County
The USDA soil survey maps 60% of Beaver County as well drained — but another 32% drains differently: 23% moderately well drained, 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Gilpin is the most extensive named soil at 27% of mapped acres, then Weikert (13%) and Rayne (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Beaver County
Each reading below is measured for Beaver County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Beaver County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Beaver County runs about pH 5.0–5.6, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBeaver County runs about 218 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBeaver County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Beaver County is in
Beaver County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Allegheny Plateau (94%) and Erie Drift Plain (7%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Beaver County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Beaver County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 218-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile.
Is it too late to plant in Beaver County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Beaver County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Beaver County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly15 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Beaver County
USGS estimates 14,200 lb of Glyphosate on Beaver County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,746 lb) and Atrazine (3,474 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Beaver County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Beaver County — 798 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Beaver County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Beaver County
Closest first, across Beaver County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KMA MANUFACTURING LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- SPECTRUM MECHANICAL SERVICESBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BEAVER TERMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SUNOCO PARTNERS M & T - BEAVER TERMINALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SUNOCO TERMINALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CTR DRIVE PUMP HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 36136Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHELL CHEMICAL APPALACHIA LLCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SHELL CHEMICAL APPALACHIA LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- (Facility) Monac Smelter--JosephtownMining · 1.2 mi
- BEAVER BORO MUNI AUTHPFAS · 1.2 mi
- CRIVELLI NICK CHEVROLETBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beaver County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Beaver County.
Total Sites
798
across Beaver County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Beaver County
Severity Distribution
across Beaver County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beaver County, two things run higher than the national average across Beaver County — Toxics Release Inventory (74 sites) and PFAS (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Beaver County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaver County average
Your land is one point inside Beaver County
Everything above resolves to Beaver County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 278K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Beaver County Average
Beaver County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Beaver County
- ●One soil character for all of Beaver County
- ●Frost dates read at Beaver County's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beaver County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Beaver County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beaver County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beaver County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beaver County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaver County average
How we know this about Beaver County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Beaver County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Beaver County
When does frost risk typically end in Beaver County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beaver County typically lands around Apr 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 29.
How long is the growing season in Beaver County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beaver County sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 29, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beaver County?
The federal record around Beaver County is a meaningful one — 798 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (412), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.7 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Beaver County's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beaver County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Pennsylvania's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Beaver County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Beaver County's own scale — its own ~218-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 798 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beaver County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beaver County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Beaver CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 798 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Beaver County's boundary and the 278,205 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Beaver County spans, Western Allegheny Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Beaver County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Beaver County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Beaver County — the ~218 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beaver County's 278,205 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 798 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Beaver Countyread your own land →